Question : FOREST VILLAGES

(a) whether the Government has taken note that the tribals and other traditional dwellers living in forest villages including Pahari Korva tribal belt have been denied the privileges under Forest Land Rights Act as well as normal rural development activities and are being treated as encroachers of the land on which they have been living for centuries in the State of Chhattisgarh;

(b) if so, the details thereof; and

(c) the steps taken or proposed to be taken by the Government to recognize them as revenue village and give their entitlement?

MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) FOR ENVIRONMENT AND FORESTS (SHRIMATI JAYANTHI NATARAJAN)

(a)& (b) Ministry of Tribal Affairs is the nodal ministry for implementation of Forest Rights Act, 2006. As per information received from Ministry of Tribal Affairs, in the state of Chhattisgarh, 4,92,068 claims have been filed under FRA, out of which a total of 2,15,443 titles have been distributed involving 5,38,000 acres of forest land. No information is collected at village level in the Ministry of Tribal Affairs.

(c) Forest Rights Act, 2006, recognizes the rights of settlement and conversion of all forest villages, old habitation, unsurveyed villages and other villages in forests, whether recorded, notified or not into revenue villages as one of the forest rights of the forest dwelling Scheduled Tribes and other traditional forests dwellers. Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MOTA) has issued guidelines to States/ UTs Governments on 12.7.2012 to convert all such forests villages, unrecorded settlements and old habitation in to revenue villages. The conversion would include the actual land use of the villages in its entirety, including lands required for current or future community uses, like, schools, health facilities, public spaces etc.